Author: D. Buffa

A regular guy who feels a journalistic hunger to tell the news. I blog because its wired into my brain to write what I think in print. I offer an opinion. A solo tour here. Take regular stories and offer my spin on them. Sports, film, television, music, fatherhood, culture, food, and so on. Commentary on everything. A St. Louis native and Little Rock resident who wants to write just to keep the hands fresh and ready.

Pretty Little Empire’s William Godfred breaks out

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W Godfred

They say America is the land of opportunity and one must take control of every possible chance dealt their way. That saying carries the most weight in the world of music, where faces come and go as the years pass by. St. Louis native Will Godfred got together with fellow STL music disciple Justin Johnson and helped form the popular Pretty Little Empire and they made great music together. Recently, Godfred had a chance to hitch a ride on Jessica Mayfield, one of the music world’s biggest indie darlings, and her tour.

Strong arming that opportunity has given Godfred a chance to open for Mayfield on January 22nd at Off Broadway. He will be playing song from his brand new solo record. While Johnson may join him on stage for a few, it will be Godfred’s first big night in front of a home crowd playing music that has been rattling around his head for years. This past week, I grasped the opportunity to speak with Godfred about PLE, the time in between, and his new solo album.

KSDK-According to your Facebook page, December marked seven years since your first rehearsal with Pretty Little Empire. Do you ever take a moment, step back and think about how far you have come with your music? 

Godfred-I definitely do. I’m so grateful when I think about all the great opportunities we’ve had as a band. I definitely think we’ve come a long way when I think of all the great people and killer shows we’ve been a part of over the years.

KSDK-When did it all begin? You, music and the need to play…? 

Godfred-I started playing when I was 20 or 21. I played bass casually with a few friends that also played instruments. We ended up buying a digital recorder and I started recording everyone’s songs, including my own. A year or two later I met Justin and we decided to record an album in my apartment and that pretty much became how Pretty Little Empire started.

KSDK-While you, Justin Johnson, and Wade Durbin formed Pretty Little Empire, all of you have your side projects. Johnson recently collaborated with Jim Peters on Fog Lights and Wade has We Bite. This solo album for you. Do you find differences in playing inside a band formed years ago as opposed to putting together your own record? Or is it all just music?

Godfred-When it comes to recording music, I feel as though it’s one of my strong suits. I had a heavy hand in putting together the Pretty Little Empire records, so it wasn’t a foreign place for me. Plus, I made this record at Native Sound with David Beeman who put the last Pretty Little Empire album together. It was a very familiar, open environment to work in.

KSDK-How did you get the opportunity to share a show with Jessica Mayfield?

Godfred-I started working at Native Sound studios and David was tour managing for Jessica. I had the opportunity to go on tour with them and do some stage hand work and see what tour managing was all about. Tour managing has become a part of what Native Sound Studios can provide – David and Ben (our head engineers at the studio) both tour manage and run sound on long US and European tours. It is a great experience to be a part of.    

KSDK-Is there a better feeling playing in front of your hometown? 

Godfred-There’s nothing better than playing in front of an enthusiastic hometown crowd!

KSDK-What would you say the theme of this album is? 

Godfred-I don’t know that the album has a single theme. Some of these songs are several years old. I would say the songs are a calibration of my own and my friends’ experiences in life.

KSDK-Pretty Little Empire’s music was recently played on a movie on Netflix. Being movie fanatics, it’s got to be a quiet kick hearing your music in a movie? 

Godfred-It’s a surreal feeing hearing your music on the big screen. We’ve definitely made a few fans from the movie. Me and Justin went to the premier of Last Time We Had Fun at the Oxford Film Festival. Seeing how well the movie played in front of a sold out crowd was a once in a lifetime experience. Me and Justin have also drove head first into film soundtracking and scoring, so it was a great stepping stone for us. 

KSDK-Where can fans buy your solo album if they don’t make it out on Friday, the 22nd? 

Godfred-That’s a good question. I plan to get it in all the local record shops. You can always message me at William Godfred on Facebook.

KSDK-Any plans for more shows around the area or a possible short tour? Where can fans find more Godfred at? 

Godfred-There are no plans for any upcoming shows or tours, but there’s always a chance something may come down the pipe line. I’m sure I will play more shows with this lineup.

KSDK-Can fans expect a few PLE covers when Justin joins you on stage? 

Godfred-Not this time but maybe in the future. 

KSDK-In closing, all these years later, what keeps you on the stage? Many people find something stimulating for a short period of time and give it up. You’ve stayed in the ring, found some success and had some fun. What keeps you in it? 

Godfred-It’s really great working with all the great friends I’ve made over the years. Playing with Justin Johnson and all the members of Pretty Little Empire and working David Beeman and Ben Majchrzakat Native Sound has been what keeps me going. Being around such great friends and so much talent, there’s always something exciting and new happening. I owe everything to these folks.  

KSDK-Finally, thoughts on the latest Star Wars film? 

Godfred-I enjoyed it a lot, but it is nothing compared to Empire Strikes Back! 

Some things are born with us. A gift, a need or a will to do something that if you do not partake in, life won’t seem as grand. For Godfred, it’s music. Making it, playing it and creating it for people to enjoy and consume. He doesn’t get to do it as much as he wants but he doesn’t waste opportunities.

When you hear him play live, a comfort and electricity enter your system. Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” When Godfred unleashes his arsenal of singer/songwriter ferocity on you on January 22nd, you won’t just feel good. You will feel fulfilled. Go to the show. Be there for something special.

STL to Little Rock: Lost and Found

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A year ago, I was terrified.

In December of 2014, my family and I moved from my hometown of St. Louis to Little Rock, basically going from familiar and safe to the middle of fucking nowhere. Little Rock was too quiet, desolate and full of different people I didn’t know or recognize. This was crazy and it wasn’t a drill.

We settled into a new apartment complex that seemed like the set for Walking Dead or Breaking Bad(the desert scenes). Nothing was around. The closest thing to get a bite to eat was McDonalds, IHOP or Firehouse Subs(just shoot me). Change is a motherfucker because it upends everything you are close to and replaces it with other shit. Friends and family will tell you to stay busy and adapt, but it’s not that easy. It’s not a Matrix like upload or an easy progression. It takes time and usually involves panic.

We moved down here for my wife’s new job. A huge promotion. She was getting her own store and would truly boost the economic income of our household and also provide me with a chance to write for a living. It was a win-win professionally but personally it was a hardship. I freaked out. Big time. I questioned everything I thought was figured out in my life. Imagine your life is a large puzzle and then three kids go over to it and smash it apart and the pieces don’t fit they way they used to. It’s insane and threw me a curveball and truly hurt those around me. After 2-3 months of soul searching and mental ass kicking, I dug both feet in and stayed. I got used to my surroundings.

I found a gym, a coffee shop that didn’t produce slop, and a movie theater. The three needs a man like myself craves in order to truly fit into a hole. I’m sorry, Arkansas folks, but this place isn’t as good as St. Louis. Not even close. Missouri has this place beat in every area, including the area of “don’t ask me a 100 fucking questions at an auto shop while we wait for our cars to be worked on”. STL is still the center of my universe and a place I call home. I think of this Little Rock experiment as being stationed oversears for a couple years and simply a trial I must push through. No offense Little Rock. I am sure you would say the same thing of St. Louis if you were shipped there suddenly.

That was the reason it hurt so bad. No matter how I was prepared for it or ready to make the switch, a move out of state never feels normal. It feels like you are being taken, and there is no Liam Neeson coming to save you. It’s like being dumped somewhere where people talk differently, there’s several Mexican restaurants and basically no clear way out. You make do. It’s not like it has been easy folks.

*First, the in your face idea the people down here have is fucked up. I can be standing outside at a gas station or somewhere else in public and people feel like it’s time to get to know me and my whole life story. Before I can finish pumping gas, they are telling me good schools to go to and how this is good. The entire time, I have zero fucks to give. You find out how private you are when people invade your personal space every day. I don’t need to tell everyone my life story. Get in line.

*The food is mostly shit. Especially in a place called Maumelle. You know what your surrounding food is. David’s Burgers(Five Guys evil twin). Zaxby’s(KFC’s fucked up brother), McDonalds, IHop, Firehouse Subs(Subway’s demented cousin) and 2-3 Mexican places and shitty pizza joints. Your one truly good restaurant, Cheers, doesn’t know your fucking name and is crazy expensive. There are a few other places to eat that you won’t feel like some personal space with a toilet is out of the question later, but overall, it sucks.

*There is no hockey. People don’t even know what hockey is. They need to work on that.

*They don’t treat the roads during snow storms or freezing rain servings. Seriously, they shut the city down and call it. Like a rain shower dropping on a baseball field and the umps don’t even treat the field or anything. I am from St. Louis, where snow and ice are frequent and the roads are treated with salt and plowed. Down here, they do nothing. Sorry for all the people that actually have to drive to work. Get some ice skates or a sled.

*That no hockey thing….yeah..Fox Sports Midwest Blues hockey is blacked out down here.

Every place has its drawbacks, but the good thing is the more I look around the better things get. ARK can produce a fine sunset and has several good parks to run through. The people are nice. Too nice. Waffle House has grown on me so that is nice. There is good food. You just have to drive to it. So there isn’t all misery down here. It’s not as good as the Lou.

The important thing is I am fine. A year ago I wasn’t. My wife and I are happier than ever even though we bicker like Italians. My son and I get to spend a lot of time together. My writing is reaching new areas that are bringing me notoriety. Thing are good and they have gotten that way due to hard work and introspection.

For future re-locators, I have this advice. Keep it and store it or toss it into the infinite abyss of unneeded knowledge. It’s recycled through my experience but that doesn’t make it any less real or poignant. If you have to move or relocate to someplace completely different, give it time before you lose your shit completely. It’s okay to panic, as long as your feet are touching the ground and insanity doesn’t enter your mind. Know that every place has something for you, no matter how gray it seems at first. Trust me. It gets better.

Or you can always adopt Winston Churchill’s advice.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

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Little Rock isn’t hell to me yet, but it’s not St. Louis. Not even close. However, these days, I am just fine.

5 Reactions to The Oscar Nominations

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Hollywood has spoken. The Academy Award nominations are out. Here are five instant reactions to the decisions.

*Best Supporting Actor category is rightly packed and has so many contenders. Glad Academy saw Ruffalo’s brilliant work in Spotlight yet I am still pulling for Stallone’s career best work in Creed. Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy are also very deserving.

**Side Note: Can Hardy have his own category? For the second straight year, he has rocked three completely different roles. Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend and The Revenant. Magnificent talent.

*Hat tip to George Miller. Fury Road is one of the top nominated films and scored Best Picture and Director nods. 71 years old. Went back to the desert. Made an original film and did so his way. He won’t win for Best Picture but deserves a fair look.

*Sicario‘s cinematography is brilliant. Benicio Del Toro gave the best performance in 2015 that wasn’t going to be nominated. However, the way that film was shot is almost as good as Mad Max.

*Best Actor was packed and Will Smith/Johnny Depp did get snubbed. However, Damon’s ability to blend comedy/drama was superb. Leo was a must. So immersive. Fassbender was underrated as Jobs. Redmayne can’t be denied. 2015 was a great year for film and it showed in the snubs.

*Quietly hoping Thomas Newman gets the award for his brilliant and poignant Bridge of Spies score. He won’t. Morricone will win for Hateful 8. Still, Newman is great.

Extra thought: Cate Blanchett has the best actress award in her handbag already but it would be nice to see out of nowhere Brie Larson steal it for her phenomenal work in Room.

Yes, Quentin Tarantino did get snubbed and Spotlight deserves best picture.

Rest and peace and salute to Alan Rickman, who died Thursday morning at the tender age of 69 years young. He was most memorable as his work in Die Hard and the Harry Potter series, but he was also very good in Michael Collins, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Truly Madly Deeply, Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually(poor cheating Harry!). He may be remembered for shouting “Where are the detonators?” and sporting the best tailored suit and beard ever known to man, but he put in 37 years of work that spanned 70 different roles. He will be missed and marks the second 69 year old performer who was taken by cancer this week along with David Bowie. Cancer truly sucks.

Come back for more entertainment news this weekend. Thanks for reading.

Top Five Movie Villains

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Alan Rickman turned Hans Gruber into a legendary villain back in 1988. It was his first movie role after a series of TV work. Playing a terrorist hellbent on robbing rich executives in a high tower in Los Angeles, Rickman helped create an iconic movie character. A true villain. The best villains stay in a film addict’s mind decades later. Rickman played a few different unique villains and got me thinking about other great bad guys of cinema. Here are five that come to mind.

Heath Ledger’s Joker(The Dark Knight)

Ledger took over a role that Jack Nicholson made iconic and didn’t just paint a better shade of evil on it, he won an Oscar and created a role that help transcend what comic book bad guys are supposed to be on the big screen. His work led to many interpretations and impersonations. It consumed him and may have led to his early departure. Ledger didn’t just take a script and memorize lines. He did his own makeup, kept a diary as the Joker and locked himself in a hotel room for six weeks becoming this guy. Mastering the walk and the voice. Full immersion. In the end, Ledger made Joker the good guy and made you feel for his character and crave more. It is easily my favorite movie performance of all time and something all movie fans could respect.

Daniel Day Lewis’s Bill The Butcher(Gangs of New York)

Playing the epic bad guy in the old streets of New York facing off against Leonardo DiCaprio’s Amsterdam Vallon, Day Lewis created a nasty, cynical yet charmingly bashful bad guy. Ruthless, tough and all the necessary evil involved. However, Bill had a cause that he deemed noble. He wasn’t a villain or evil in his eyes. He was simply chasing a belief that suited his morals. Like any great bad guy, they aren’t really evil in their eyes. Just chasing a different thing. Worse than the good guy.

Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito(Goodfellas)

I’ll strike down upon thee with furious anger…

The smallest guy in the room who happened to be the toughest. You didn’t want to cross Tommy DeVito because he’d kill you and had help. Sure, Pesci threw a B-side album twist on this character in Scorsese’s Casino, but his most ruthless role will always be Tommy. A guy who beat a man to death with a gun, go to his moms house for dinner and a knife, and then shoot and carve that bloodied man and bury him. He’d oversee the killing of women if they got in the way and even killed a poor bus boy who crossed him. Pesci taught the world that size and muscle doesn’t mean much unless you are fearless.

Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris(Training Day)

Oscar winning performance for a reason. Denzel went full bad here and stepped into evil, playing a corrupt cop in need of a big score on the same day he is training a new detective(Ethan Hawke, the soft innocent foil to Washington’s rage fueled Kong). At first, he was merely corrupt. Then, he turned into a cold blooded murderer. Afterwards, he was willing to hand over his young partner to a drug kingpin in exchange for an escape plan. At the end of the film, you hated to see him go but loved watching him catch a thousand bullets in the chest. After a career of playing bad guys, Denzel went rogue in the most brutal way possible.

Rickman’s Hans Gruber(Die Hard)

The perfect suit. The perfect beard. The perfect silver plated handgun. Ruthless, cunning, and with an accent that even Alfred would be envious of, Rickman burst onto the scene with Gruber. The mastermind terrorist who has a simple plan thwarted by a relentless cop from New York.  He was 44 when Die Hard came out, getting a late start in the movies after being content on the stage and on the smaller screen. As much as Willis commanded the screen as the action hero, Rickman held your attention as the action villain. You wanted them to get another movie perhaps and go at it again in a different high rise. Every Die Hard that followed the original wasn’t as good because they couldn’t find a bad guy as good as Rickman. He was a cinematic virgin and after Die Hard, couldn’t stop finding work over the next 25 years.

Rickman was five weeks shy of his 70th birthday when he lost a long battle with cancer this morning. He will be remembered for Harry Potter by most people in their teens and 20’s but for the film addicted souls of the 1970’s and 1980’s he will be Hans. Forever. Rest in peace. Hopefully they buried him in a suit half as good as Hans’.

Jim Edmonds: A Hall of Famer in my book

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Jim Edmonds won’t get another shot at the Hall of Fame. After receiving a terribly low amount of votes(2.5 percent, needed 5 to stay on another year) in his first year of eligibility, Edmonds won’t get next year or the year after that. It’s a shame. Edmonds deserves a discussion or at least another chance to be considered.

I’ll admit I am bias. I watched all of Edmonds’ golden years at Busch Stadium from behind the Manual Scoreboard at old Busch. He was a unique and game changing player. He didn’t have the lofty 3,000 hits, 500 home runs or multiple World Series wins that voters covet or look for. Edmonds did plenty in his 17 year career.

He slugged .527 and compiled an average WAR(wins above replacement) of 3.5 over his career, which included six teams, mostly spent with the Angels and Cardinals. He won eight gold gloves and made four All Star game appearances. He changed the way center field could be played, hovering in shallow center and being able to cover a ton of ground by the time he dove into the grass making an unbelievable catch.

Edmonds was elite for an extended period of time with the Cardinals from 2000-2005, compiling an average WAR of 6.1 and winning six straight gold gloves while slugging 30 or more home runs in four of those seasons. With St. Louis, his OPS was .947 over 8 seasons and .856 over 7 seasons with Anaheim.

He wasn’t a playoff slouch. Edmonds hit 13 home runs and drove in 42 runs with 16 doubles while slugging .551 in 64 playoff games. He made the miraculous diving catch off a Brad Ausmus line drive and hit the game winning home run in Game 6 against Houston in the 2004 World Series. Edmonds had several historic moments and a swing that wasn’t as pretty as Ken Griffey Jr.’s but still effective and compact.

Edmonds is far from a Hall of Fame lock. He always has been a long shot. His 393 home runs won’t woo many. His 1199 RBI’s won’t gather a crowd. His 1,949 hits won’t make anybody’s jaw drop. He did deserve another couple of years of discussion and debate.

He made people stop and think. What makes a career Hall of Fame worthy? Is it a prolonged excellence? An overall solid piece of work, perhaps? Or, do you take a player who was excellent for two different periods of time with two different clubs in two different leagues? Edmonds was great from 1995-98 with the Angels but stellar from 2000-2005 with the Cardinals. Doesn’t that deserve more than a year of consideration?

Edmonds signed a minor league contract with the Cardinals after the 2010 season, but retired in February before spring training unfolded. He was 40 and his body was done. He wanted to give it one last go and try to reach 400 home runs, 2000 hits and add more polish to his career. While it may have added a few more long balls to his career, it could have showed an Edmonds that wasn’t as useful or fun to watch. It does make you think. If healthy, could Edmonds have done better than Colby Rasmus and Jon Jay in 2011? We will never know.

Know this. Edmonds had a HOF caliber career. Far from a lock but nearly as distant from a one and done, he was a signature player who left his mark. Years from now. Decades from now. Fathers and mothers will tell their kids about that lefty who cranked meaningful home runs, stole others from over the wall and created dazzling moments. Edmonds is a better ballplayer than at least 2 or 3 of the centerfielders currently in the Hall of Fame, right?

Edmonds deserved better from the voters. Better than 2.5 percent. He was a Hall of Famer in my book.

(In case you missed it on KSDK)

David Bowie: An Artist for All Ages

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David Bowie is dead, gone from the world at 69 years young after an 18 month battle with cancer. What he leaves behind is a legacy that few can touch and a musical influence that will last for decades. Bowie wasn’t just a musician or artist. He was an island of memories, events and love swirls. I didn’t grow up on Bowie or listen to every single song he produced but I knew of him.

If you were a fan of music in general, you knew David Bowie. He lurked around everybody’s music interests, tempting them to take the fall for his distinct brand of music.

Bowie told millions of people to dance. He told you to be a hero. He made you wonder who Major Tom was. “Space Oddity” got inside your head, it wasn’t leaving for days, You’d spend the next week whispering it or humming to it. The best musicians, true artists, carve out a spot in someone’s cerebellum and buy up real estate there, slowly hooking them into your persuasive vices.

There was John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Joan Jett, and Kurt Cobain. Musicians who didn’t follow an influence. They created one themselves and demanded others to follow. Bowie did that and didn’t let it consume him. He enjoyed the game, match making and soul defying contest that the world of a rock star provided.

He seemed to warn us that one day he would gone.

“Nothing will keep us together. We can beat them. Forever and ever. Or we can be heroes for just one day.” 

The “Heroes” video says it all. A man wearing a leather one piece outfit unzipped with a tan tank top underneath, waving his body around and standing in a black box singing about being heroes and living in the now. Bowie didn’t look like everyone else. He had several colors of hair and his personality seemed to stretch farther with each decade. He looked bendable, like he would easily disappear at any moment. He was one of those people who could wear any outfit and get away with it.

For over 40 years, Bowie worked in several different genres, like a cure waving through nightclubs on a hot Saturday night. Glam rock, soul, hard rock, punk, and electronica. He blasted onto the scene with Ziggy Stardust in 1972. Bowie had fun with the media and toyed with his sexuality every time he released another he sported a new look. Instead of just being a singer, he became the characters and stories inside his albums.

On January 8th, he turned 69 and released his 25th album, Blackstar. One more hat tip to the world before he called it a night and departed this rock. When someone dies, people wonder what happens to their legacy or how they will sit in people’s minds. It’s like a house with no owner. With Bowie, people can rest easy knowing he lived a full life and did it his way, with style and grace.

Most people just try to keep living and move to the beat of the drum. For several musicians, Bowie was the drum. Just search “Heroes” and listen to the endless covers of a classic song.

“I can remember. Standing by the wall. The stars shot up over our heads. And we kissed so nothing could fall.”

“Heroes” was released on an album of the same name, in 1977. Five years before I was born. Once I heard it, there was no forgetting it. Nearly 40 years later, it’s potency hasn’t wavered. In another 40, it will still mean something to a new generation of kids. That’s the true work of an icon.

(In case you missed it on KSDK)

The Big Short: Dense yet fascinating

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The Big Short/Paramount

Adam McKay is well known for directing comedies, and he didn’t just depart into an easy going action film or fictional drama. He picked up a big stick and took a swing at the mighty banks who drained the economy in 2006 in the Economic crisis. A dollar bill monster that ate up 5 trillion dollars(pensions, 401K, savings, bonds), took away 6 million homes and 8 million jobs. The Big Short(adapted from Michael Lewis’ novel) details a group of outsiders in the world of finance who notice the impending doom that is setting and set out to take a shot at the banks, government and media who stood by, did nothing and got rich. That is the easiest way to explain this film. Unless you want to know what a CDO is.

It’s a dense adventure. Watching The Big Short is like watching a slow moving heavyweight boxing match. The two large men stalk each other for a few rounds in the ring, throw some jabs, and hug a lot. Suddenly, one throws a deafening left hook and knocks the other man out. That is the way McKay and fellow screenwriter Charles Randolph treat Lewis’ prose. They pepper the audience with hedge fund terminology, stock broker jargon and David Mamet like delivery to make your head spin. At times, you feel like Google search is your best friend while watching this movie. You wonder about a world where it was impossible to pause a film and look stuff up. The Big Short isn’t for everybody. For hundreds of thousands who watch this film, it will anger them and feel like a band aide getting ripped off. For the rest, it’s a day at finance school.

There were wolves and there were sheep in the spring/summer of 2006, and when numbers like the percentage of unemployed going up correlating with thousands of people ending up dead, your attention is perked. When you don’t know who to trust and can’t tell a snake from a shark, the film only picks up speed and gathers you in its storm. It’s not easy to keep up with a film that seems to have sprint on a treadmill as you gathers lost papers behind it.

McKay was smart and cast well liked and good looking actors like Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell, John Magaro, and Christian Bale to portray a variety of roles that springs some against type(Carell) and settle others down in their comfort zone(Bale and Gosling). Carell fares the best, playing Mark Baum, one of the minds who saw this jenga stack crumbling from a mile away.

Adapting a different method of speaking and curling himself into a ball of morose rage, Carell really creates something here instead of high stepping through scenes.  Gosling’s mad hat ring leader has some nice moments while Bale gets to revert back to wackiness as Michael Burry, a hedge fund CEO who slowly saw everything around him fold up even though he was convinced he saw this happening years in advance. Difficult yet fascinating.

Some get rich, most felt guilty and the others sulk and brood their way through the film’s conclusion. I found it very hard to love The Big Short but it was well done and I tip my hat to McKay in NOT casting Will Ferrell for once and taking on a project that wasn’t easy to spin. I don’t see a ton of Oscar potential in this film and while it’s not brilliant, it will get you thinking and teach you a few things about the collapse you may not have saw on CNN.

Kudos to McKay for including my favorite Led Zeppelin song, When the Levees Breaks, in the end credits in its entirety. Jimmy Page’s lyrics fit inside the threads of this film perfectly.

Dave Matthews: A true musician

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Dave Matthews represents the gatekeeper for my love affair with music. I didn’t grow up with the Stones, Beatles or Creedence Clearwater Revival. I grew up with the Dave Matthews Band, who formed in 1991 and have been selling out arenas and stadiums ever since. Today, Matthews turns a weary and wise 49 years old. He’ll be heading out on tour again this year in support of another album that he has poured a fair share of his soul into this past year.

That’s what Matthews does. He’s a true musician. He writes, sings, plays and allows his tunes to sell themselves. No extra glaze, glitter or glitz are required. Matthews looks like a college student who just rolled out of bed and dressed himself blind when he gets to the stage. It’s all about the music. He is a man with a guitar telling stories supported by an unbelievable crew of musicians.

It was back in 1998 that my dad slipped in an album entitled “Crash” that didn’t get taken out of the CD player for the entire night. We listened to it over and over again, revisiting and devouring the versatile set of tracks. There was the legendary “Crash into Me” but also “Tripping Billies” and “Proudest Monkey” to balance out the sound and rhythm of the band’s third mainstream release. I didn’t think about where they’d been for the first 16 years of my life. I only wanted more. Matthews was the maestro behind it all. He played rhythm guitar, wrote most of the songs, and had a voice that was hard to forget. You could label DMB a jam band but they were so much more, especially when seen live.

Unlike most bands I’ve seen, DMB didn’t just play to satisfy a mere date on a tour guide. They play for two and a half hours or until buckets of sweat fling from the stage on a 100 degree night in Maryland Heights at Riverport, Verizon Wireless, or whatever they call that place now. Matthews and company make it an experience every time. I’ve seen them play at Busch Stadium and Wrigley Field. I’ve never been disappointed.

Matthews’ dark past and stories define the music that the band plays. A South African native who lost his dad before he was 10 and his sister before he was 30 has plenty of emotional baggage but Matthews always infuses timely matters into his music without drowning out people’s attention spans or preaching to them. He could sneak in a take on the war in Iraq or a gentle slam of a President without turning into Bruce Springsteen.

Matthews’ music marks a lot of events in my life with his music. His flawed yet experimental and risky album Everyday helped me through my first year of college at Mizzou. I proposed to my wife at a DMB concert back in 2002. I remember putting his music on my wife’s stomach when she was pregnant with our son in 2011. I remember being moved to tears by his stories during his live shows with Tim Reynolds.

Great musicians represent pit stops in our lives. Matthews is my driver. When done right, a musician can strike a chord and feel like someone you have known for years, whether it’s the way their music makes you feel or their lyrics show a resemblance. They are a kind friend, if only for 3-5 minutes at a time.

Happy Birthday Dave. Keep playing. Keep creating. The world of music is better with you in it.

DiCaprio is the beating heart of The Revenant

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The Revenant/20th Century Fox

Hey Hollywood, meet the new golden standard for survival flicks. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant reshapes the expectations, entertainment and the overall brutality level of survival films. Leonardo DiCaprio finds yet another first class director that gives him a project to sink his cinematic chops into. This is a different kind of performance and one that anchors, elevates and sustains the film and its extended running time.

This isn’t just acting. This is full immersion into a role and a world that was known for its dead or alive status. Give DiCaprio a golden glove for the bear mauling scene that sets the film’s plot in motion and an Oscar for the go for broke all in performance he gives. You won’t see anything like this this year. DiCaprio barely speaks any English, grows a massive beard and allows the ugly to come out of his character, Fur trader turned death defying beast Justin Glass.

Glass is a good man haunted by the memory of his dead wife, who was killed in a raid. His son, half Indian, is all he has left in this world. The only thing for him to cling to while he makes a living hunting and killing bison and stripping their fur for cash. When a bear attacks him viciously and he is close to death, his crew abandons him, leaving him behind. They do so behind the propaganda jargon of the evil Fitzgerald(another dozy of a role for the fearless Tom Hardy). Left with nothing, Glass literally crawls across the earth, healing and gathering strength for the ultimate revenge mission.

Hardy is something else here. Fitzgerald isn’t just a bad man. He’s a twisted soul who is good at his job but not at much else, including compassion and respect for his fellow man. His fight with Glass during the film isn’t as fierce as the one raging in himself. Hardy doesn’t spare the audience one moment of pause, exposing himself to be something he has never played before. A true villain with purpose. Fitzgerald isn’t bad. He’s bent the wrong way.

Inarritu hangs the film, though, on DiCaprio’s shoulders. While the story springs away to follow Hardy’s Fitzgerald, there are extra long stretches of Glass withering, hobbling and doing anything to stay alive. Whether it’s crawling inside a dead horse for warmth, pigging out on raw Bison guts for dinner, or befriending an Indian(formerly his enemy) in order to stay breathing. While it’s slow moving, The Revenant is captivating in every moment. For a two hour and 36 minute movie, no scene or shot is wasted.

This film kicks your butt. It’s brutal, bare and asks all the powerful questions heavyweight dramas do this time of year. What are you in this world at your lowest level of function? When does the beast take over? Are their good and bad men, or just people with a certain philosophy that compels others to follow them? Also, when approached by a bear do not try to fight back unless you have a knife. A big knife.

That is the scene that will have everybody talking. The scene between a large brown bear and Glass that sets the tone for the rest of the film. You will leave yourself asking if that was a real bear or not, or half CGI or full CGI because it’s so horrifying and realistically done. DiCaprio is thrust into trees, stomped on, pierced by the bear’s claws and generally kicked around like a doll. If it wasn’t an actor, it was one heck of a beast inside that costume. Right when you think it’s over, the fight continues. It’s like a 12 round boxing match inside a movie and the actor’s commitment makes you buy all the way in.

That is how it works with the film. DiCaprio’s 100 % full throttle commitment to the story hold your attachment for the running time. A lesser actor would have been overpowered by it. Other capable actors may have done too much with it. DiCaprio does just enough to break your heart watching this emotionally and physically wounded soul find a way to live again.

When it does come time for the final battle between Fitzgerald and Glass, the actors and Inarritu don’t disappoint. An extended battle that starts in one snowy patch of land and escalates down a hill next to a river is wonderfully shot and intense. Fight scenes don’t get this messy and realistic in 95 percent of mainstream films. You may be rooting for Glass but you’ll understand why Fitzgerald is so mad. Nothing is spared and the end is sublimely optimistic yet bittersweet as well.

The Revenant/20th Century Fox

The Academy can go ahead and hand the cinematography award to Inarritu’s go to guy, Emmanuel Lubezki. They did Birdman together and elevate the craft even higher here, redefining beauty. There isn’t an endless tracking shot like the one in Birdman, but The Revenant presents many moments of sustained beauty and reward for the eyes. A getaway scene in particular involving DiCaprio on a horse trying to put distance between himself and about 30 other horses is taunt and aggressive enough to make you gasp when it suddenly ends. Lubezki knows exactly how to frame a shot and hold onto it, making it more realistic. He has worked on Oscar films before, such as Gravity, Children of Men, Tree of Life and the aforementioned Birdman. Combined with DiCaprio’s acting and Alejandro’s directing, the cinematography will make you feel cold even if you watch this film at a drive in movie theater in Florida.

If you think you have seen something like The Revenant, you are very wrong. It’s part Last of The Mohicans, part Castaway and a slice of Braveheart. It’s not just a great movie. It’s an experience.

Mocking Obama’s tears is extremely low

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Presidents are human beings. Remember this the next time you think about criticizing a politician when he shows emotion. I know, it’s easy to say the tears beneath President Barack Obama’s eyes when he spoke about gun laws and the Sandy Hook tragedy were bullshit because it may feed your political agenda. Or it may just sound good joining the party.

The truth is I am not a political enthusiast. I don’t watch CNN or Fox News. I find politicians to be robotic, hands tied and mouth edited, fixtures propped up in front of people most of the time. It doesn’t matter if he is Republican or Democrat. Their words are always bent by Congress or the House Legislature. All of them. However, the one thing I won’t do is slam or mock a President for showing emotion about a tragedy like Sandy Hook where first graders were mercilessly killed in a classroom.

This is where people will say, “Well, he didn’t cry about San Bernandino or Paris, so what the hell!?” I don’t care. I am not going to do a full spectrum judging on Obama for what he didn’t or did cry over. Everybody has their own way of showing emotion or crying. We all have our get factors. The thing that possesses us to break. I didn’t cry about Paris or several other terrorist attacks. I don’t pick and choose what I cry over. That’s all part of being human and unique.

At the end of the day, Obama is human. Love or hate his politics. Approve or disapprove of his Presidential terms. He is human. A father and husband. Sandy Hook happened on US soil. It stung more than other tragedies. Whenever I think about it, rage and emotion fill my chest, neck and head. I need a moment to recalculate what I was doing. This is why I don’t fault Obama or wonder if he was faking during this speech. It’s human emotion. He was just being human. Far away from being a politician.

So when some makeup packed woman on Fox News wondered if there was an onion peel on the podium, I felt like giving her a piece of my mind. I felt like asking her to wake up and look in the mirror tomorrow morning and wonder how this face gets the privilege of spending her time on earth being called a human. The people who question raw human emotion are the ones we need to worry about. They are the ones holding back our species. I hope she went home, saw that segment and wondered, “How fucking dumb am I?” It has nothing to do with amendments and bills and everything to do with right and wrong. Skip to the 7:15 mark on this video clip from Trevor Noah’s monologue to see the woman make this ridiculously insane comment.

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/videos/a41024/trevor-noah-obama-tears-guns/

She is what we need to worry about. There’s cynical and then there is insanity with a lack of sharpening. The lack of respect for human decency. I don’t think Obama deserves praise for showing emotion. I also don’t think he deserves criticism. If so, what is this world coming to?

Sometimes, we all need a good cry.